Cubs fans hang their heads as Kyle Schwarber makes MLB history

Old friend Kyle Schwarber reached a personal milestone on Monday night, clubbing a very fitting 466-foot moonshot for his 300th career home run. It's an impressive feat as he's only the 163rd player in MLB history to reach that mark, and it came as part of a late-game surge as the Phillies finished off the Rockies 9-3. At just 32, he still potentially has a lot of baseball left in him to keep pumping that number up, too. For Chicago Cubs fans, however, the moment is more bittersweet.

Ever since Jed Hoyer decided to non-tender Schwarber back in December of 2020, the Cubs have been getting almost non-stop reminders of what they lost. Despite being gone from Chicago for just over four seasons, he's clubbed 180 dingers and counting in other uniforms and has posted consistently better years than he ever had on the North Side. He bounced back in 2021 between the Nationals and Red Sox with a .266/.374/.554/145 wRC+ before becoming the beating heart of the Phillies as a constant power threat, hitting 46, 47, and 38 dingers respectively over the next three seasons. This is without mentioning his clubhouse presence, which still draws rave reviews from Boston manager Alex Cora and spurred Phillies writer Matt Gelb to call the signing "franchise-altering."

2025 is shaping up to be his best year yet, too. Schwarber is currently striking out at by far his lowest rate ever in the majors while slashing .257/.390/.583 with 17 home runs. His 165 wRC+ is tied for fifth in all of baseball, with the only Cubs remotely close to that performance being Pete Crow-Armstrong (143 wRC+) and Kyle Tucker (150 wRC+). This week's milestone homer is just the cherry on top.

Schwarber's career in Chicago was more uneven, to say the least. At the time of his departure, he was coming off easily his worst season yet, with a .188/.308/.393 slash line and a 91 wRC+, but that was only in 59 games because of the pandemic-shortened schedule. In 2019, he had his best full season as a Cub, slashing .250/.339/.531/119 wRC+ with 38 home runs to boot. If anything, he was always a solid source of pure left-handed power for the team. He also earned the status of a legend with his 2015 arrival and homer off of Gerrit Cole in the 2015 Wild Card game, and his magical return and subsequent domination in the 2016 World Series.

Cubs, Jed Hoyer regret cutting ties with Kyle Schwarber in 2020

In the fifth year of Hoyer's tenure as Cubs president, losing Schwarber for nothing remains arguably his single most indefensible move. It's one that Hoyer himself expressed regret for back in January when sitting down for an episode of David Kaplan's REKAP podcast. "I look back on that one and it just feels like we were right about the player," he said at the time. "We ran out of time and patience, and money. I feel like he should be a Cub."

It was an ominous precursor of what was to come, as the main motivator was clearing his $8+ million arbitration cost after owner Tom Ricketts claimed the team suffered "biblical losses" during the pandemic. Yu Darvish was shipped off for some prospects and salary relief soon after, and by the trade deadline of 2021, the team's historic curse-breaking core would be dismantled.

Schwarber's departure has especially haunted them. Until this year, their lack of power on the left side was well-noted, and they did little to address it as big free agents like Corey Seager and Juan Soto went by the wayside. In general, they were without a power threat in the years after 2021, ranking in the bottom half of the league in slugging and home runs from 2022 through 2024. It wasn't until they gave up a haul for Tucker that they were finally able to alleviate that problem, and even then, confidence is low that he'll be anything more than a one-and-done in Chicago.

Power like Schwarber's is rare and, combined with the clubhouse presence he brings, it can be game-changing. It's hard not to feel happy about how he's realized his potential, even if it's not with the Cubs. This team has to learn, however, that pop like that is worth paying for when the opportunity arises.